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BMW goes dynamic with headlights and lasers: Autoweek TV

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Also in today's show: Mopar muscle turns yellow, Buick blings out for Los Angeles and Mitsubishi goes electric for Tokyo.

Transcript

Mopar colors up its muscle cars, Buick dresses up in Detroit and Mitsubishi plugs in for Tokyo.

All this, plus BMW has a bright look into the future with new lighting technology.

I'm Julie. This is Autoweek TV for Thursday.

Dodge announced two new packages for its muscle cars that will be revealed at the L.A. auto show. The Charger SRT8 Super Bee and the Challenger SRT8 Yellow Jacket will both get the 392-cubic-inch, 470-hp V8. They arrive in the first quarter of next year. Go to autoweek.com for the full story.

Buick revealed the LaCrosse GL concept on Wednesday in Detroit, and it too will be shown in L.A. It has a special cocochino interior and is colored an deep shade of Cabernet red. It rolls on 20-inch wheels and hints at future packaging for Buick.

And, Mitsubishi will reveal a plug-in crossover at Toyko later this month. It's a two-motor plug-in hybrid with lithium-ion batteries. This is said to be very close to production ready.

That's right, Julie. I traveled to Munich, Germany, to hear the latest on safety and lighting techniques, and BMW is hard at work on them both. Here are two features that we thought were rather cool.

First, you have to like laser lights. They were shown in the i8 concept and should arrive in production in 2013. These are 1,000 times more intense than conventional LEDs. I saw a demonstration, and they are bright.

But, BMW says appropriate safety measures will be taken for production cars.

The cool feature is called Dynamic Light Spot, This could arrive on the market next year, and it casts a spotlight on pedestrians in the way to alert the driver, complete with a path of light leading to the person.

This is all interesting stuff, so we'll watch the evolving technology closely.

(JULIE)

Those are certainly cool. Just like Autoweek TV. That's it for today. I'm Julie. Enjoy the drive.